Now I want to know what the "long tradition" of doing this was supposed to be about.

WTF kind of custom is that?

It's fucking Europeans being weird. The cat makeup is a clue. In 1642, the town priest was whipping cream for some town celebration because the local women were overcome with the plague. He fell into the copper vat with his knees, and the cats all ran and licked it off. That town was spared--only 20% of the people died. So now they re-enact i the event with kids as the cats.

I'd love to go back to the time when such a thing could actually be innocent. Seriously there was a time and it seems impossible now that such a time ever was. When I was those kids' age, I would never consider that sexual, and neither would anyone else. We have become a sick society.

"The cat makeup is a clue. In 1642, the town priest was whipping cream for some town celebration because the local women were overcome with the plague. He fell into the copper vat with his knees, and the cats all ran and licked it off. That town was spared--only 20% of the people died. So now they re-enact i the event with kids as the cats."

Yeah I'm with Darrell on this one. It looks horrific, but it looks so horrific that nobody could possibly defend it--if it was what it looks like. But they seem to have no problems with people taking pictures of it. I'm waiting for more information.

It seems like if you're going to go this far on the perv scale you're better off doing it smaller, less public scale and with actual, you know, sex. So this really may have another reason to it. It should still be stopped, I'm just that I am sure there is more to this than appears at first glance.

Yes times have changed. You noticed the can of whipped cream on the arm of the chair. In the good old days cream was hand whipped with a wire whisk. And it's flavored with sugar and a little vanilla extract, the whipped cream is, not the whisk.

You can find small towns all over Europe that have strange local ceremonies and re-enactments--things that don't make sense until you hear the story/legend. It makes sense with their 1000+ year histories.

Hey, I even know of a left-leaning American girl that saw a celebration marking that town's local miracle which consisted of an old woman who was probably a nun, receiving Holy Communion on her deathbed. A couple of days later when the priest was able to return, he went to give her Communion again--and saw to his amazement that the Host from two-days prior was perfectly intact--like it was in his Chalice before he distributed it. That snarky leftie girl drew a sketch depicting the event as if the nun was a cat coughing up a hairball.Circle of life--Italian nun, Polish cat. And now we are all together here. What are the odds?

It really is amazing how weirded out supposedly "tolerant" people (e.g. Andy) get when really faced with the true multiplicity of human experience.

This story is, of course, in the British paper no doubt as another example of RC perversity -- historically always a seller in the British mind. But, it's clearly just a horrible piece of reporting --- lurid pictures & nothing else. Is this a "public" event? Who took the photos? No parents interviewed (to echo Erika)? Did anyone interview the priests or kids? I mean, as sexual acts go, this seems to be an awful lot of work for not much.

Other cultures do strange things, you know. It was standard practice in many Mediterranean cultures until not too long ago for the mother of the bride to parade the blood-stained wedding night sheet through the village so that the world would know her daughter was an honorable virgin.

Of course, that's disgusting. But leather fairies with their buttocks exposed in chaps and sucking on each others nipples in Gay Pride Day parade is just right as rain. Or, am I missing something?

Now I want to know what the "long tradition" of doing this was supposed to be about.

WTF kind of custom is that?

Yeah, where could that tradition possibly have come from? You know, often traditions are toned-down versions of activities that might not be deemed, um, acceptable nowadays. You don't suppose this has anything to do with what priests are best-known for today, do you? Nah, couldn't be....

Andrew, you've mentioned before that you work with progressive Christians. It can't be good for you to hide your contempt for them until you get here. I encourage you to tell them directly how stupid you think they are.

"Everything was fine until Little Suzy Krachclaw, who had been to the US in her youth, mis-took the Fathers leg for a banana split, and continued consuming until she reached what she thought was a cherry..."

I gotta' admit, the pointing out of the one guy whose entire remarks career has been about acceptance of odd people, is making fun of people he doesn't agree with, funnier than shit.

Ps

I would never call Andy a POS...to Gods face. After all, he does love Andy too. Even though Andy rejects him.

Maybe if we understood what the long standing tradition of this is, then we could get some perspective beyond what the pictures tell perhaps? Or is this considered unacceptable regardless of what the tradition is?

I suspect the cream motif is about nourishing the young at the Mother Church's tit.

Then you suspect wrong. That ceremony has nothing to do with RC Doctrine or practice. The article says or implies that it is related to that town--or particular school--so ther is no reason to "suspect" anything other than that.

I've never met a RC priest who was anything other than a dedicated servant of God who spent his entire like serving others, using his pitiful monthly stipend to help others when they needed it and to pay his meager way, providing his simple needs--like an older used car to allow him to visit parishioners in the hospital or give them a ride to the doctor.Sad so many feel the need to crap on them even though they never had a bad personal experience with any priest to warrant such behavior.